By Mark Paxton
After last week’s defeat against Nomads 5, the fourths congregated at Royal Russell with the knowledge that the teams in the LKA3 chasing pack had closed the gap.
Croydon 4 started the day in second place so the match promised to be a tough one, especially considering the opposition had games in hand. Due to a mix up, SN4 were a boy shot but Chairman JC had turned up early to watch and got the call up from Captain Stu.
Croydon took the lead early on but Jules scored a great drop off to score her first goal in what was to be a fruitful shooting game. A Croydon goal and superb long shot from Lucy tied the game at 2-2, before both Nova divisions stepped up a gear and started to click when in attack. Goals were shared around – John, Stu and Lucy all scored running in shots from side-feeds – straight out of Coach Eiti’s training manual from the previous week. But it was three more well taken goals from Jules that capped off a brilliant half for SN4. There wasn’t much Eiti and Neil could say at half-time apart from keep up the good work. Half-time score was 8-2 to Nova.
Cat E replaced Cat T and Neil came on for JC to rest legs for the upcoming SN2 vs Croydon 3 clash. Croydon scored a couple of early goals after half-time but then the Nova goals started to drop again. Abbey slotted away her first goal for the club – cue a triumphant celebration. Jules scored a second half hat trick with a combination of runners and veering shots; she was closing in Mark’s record for the number of goals scored in a game, as he could only worryingly watch from another division. Lucy and Stu worked well in combination to score and keep the pressure on the opposition. As the final whistle sounded, a 17-5 win to Nova and confidence boost going into the final match before Christmas next week against Trojans 3.
The team stayed to watch SN2 for a bit, but the lure of celebratory drinks in the Porter and Sorter was just too tempting. Stu mentioned on several occasions how he could remember the days when wins for the fourths were much harder to come by! The fourths are now four points clear at the top of the LKA3, but both Croydon 4 and Nomads 5 could be level with us if they win their games in hand.
Team: Abbey (1), Jules (7), John (1), Bobby, Lucy (4), Cat T, Cat E, Neil, Stu (3), Mark (1)